Doha, Qatar - December 8, 2010 - Chronicle of Higher of Education
In Qatar, Educators From Around the World Talk About Change By Ursula Lindsey
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| photo by WISE |
Over 1,200 people who work in education across the world arrived this week in this small, oil-wealthy Persian Gulf emirate. The visitors, who are scattered across Doha's five-star hotels and attended to by squadrons of PR people, are here for the second World Innovation Summit for Education, more commonly known as WISE, which bills itself as "building the future of education."
The summit is part of Qatar's continuing bid to become "a reference for education" says its chairman, Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, in an interview before the week's program began. "WISE was created to be a platform for people to network and to learn from each other."
For most of the participants, the conference is indeed a wonderful, all-expenses-paid networking opportunity. Participants are here courtesy of the Qatar Foundation, a government agency headed by the emir of Qatar's wife, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned, which oversees a staggering array of educational, cultural and philanthropic activities.
"I was meeting people by the time I got off the plane," says Julian Johnson, senior vice president of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, an American mentoring program for students of color. The summit is still "embryonic," says Mr. Johnson, but "you have to give them props." The conference "does not just take inventory of the status quo, but looks at how do you propel change. And it broadens the conversation beyond the usual circles."
For more on the Global Education Summit in Qatar, see Chronicle.com
